That Day We Sang

Revival
5 December 2013 – 18 January 2014 at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester

Based on a true story, Victoria Wood’s open-hearted musical about memory, love, loss and singing was a runaway hit. Filled with razor sharp one-liners and glorious tunes, the show was beautifully human and had audiences laughing, tutting and crying along with the characters. They lived every moment of the story together as Enid and Tubby waited for a bus on Quay Street and danced across Piccadilly Gardens. The production included a choir specially formed and trained from schools in north Manchester. That Day We Sang was eventually adapted for television, and was screened to great acclaim on Boxing Day 2014.

‘It is Victoria Wood’s particular comedic and dramatic skill to combine the joyful and the desolate which is what gives this story its special heartbreaking yet life-affirming resonance… It’s an entirely original and authentically British musical that’s the best of its kind about childhood aspiration since Billy Elliot, but resonates with adult disappointments that echoes Sondheim’s Follies’ The Stage

Commissioned by MIF Creative. Produced by Manchester International Festival. With support from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. With thanks to the Hallé Youth Orchestra.